How do you solve a problem like debanking?

As I sat down to write this column, an old friend let me know he’d just been ‘debanked’. That is, he’d received a letter from his high-street bank notifying him it was closing his accounts. ‘Following a review, we’ve made the decision that you will not be able to bank with us any longer,’ it said, not even bothering to put the word ‘difficult’ before ‘decision’. It contained no detail about this ‘review’ or why, on completing it, the bank had decided to close his accounts. The only thing he can think of is that he used to be a high-ranking member of the Brexit party. He was told he had until 27 August to make alternative arrangements.

Banks almost never admit that they’re closing an account
for political reasons

My friend is a member of one of Britain’s fastest-growing minorities: people losing access to financial services because their bank or payment provider disapproves of their political views. The most high-profile figure debanked so far is Nigel Farage (I don’t believe the BBC’s report that he had insufficient funds in the account), but there are plenty of others: Claire Fox, life peer and former Brexit MEP; Konstantin Kisin and Frances Foster’s Triggernometry podcast; Richard Tice’s Reform party; Stuart Campbell, an SNP blogger with gender-critical views; and yours truly – defenestrated by PayPal in September.

Banks and payment processors are supposed to give 60 days’ notice when they close your account, but one chap I know of discovered he’d been debanked only when he tried to pay for his groceries and his card was declined. In our increasingly cashless society, this is a brutally effective way of cancelling someone and is bound to have a chilling effect on free speech. Like many of the most fiendish forms of censorship, it was invented by the Chinese Communist party.